U.S. coach April Heinrichs picked just two Women's World Cup '99 veterans for the U.S. women's national team's friendly with Italy on July 7 in Islip, N.Y. Sara Whalen and Christie Pearce, who are from the New York-New Jersey area, lead an 18-player roster for the match at EAB Park.
U.S. under-21 coach Jillian Ellis will serve as assistant coach to Heinrichs.
The roster features 13 players from the USA's Olympic residency camp, including budding stars Aleisha Cramer (18 years old today), Christie Welsh (19), Nandi Pryce (18), Susan Bush (19), Aly Wagner (19) and Alyssa Ramsey (17), who despite their youth have already accrued 52 caps and 17 goals among them. The roster will also feature defender Michelle French, a three-year captain of the U-21 team and a member of the Olympic residency camp.
Eighteen-year-old Veronica Zepeda will also face Italy. She was originally selected for the residency camp, but the Santa Clara-bouund midfielder was sidelined by a back injury and could not train with the national team.
Of the 18 players, just Whalen, Pearce and French are out of college, with 10 players currently at universities and five players recently graduated from high school that will be attending college next fall.
The match will be a stern test for the young U.S. team, which faces an Italian team that participated in the 1999 Women's World Cup and features two of Europe's top strikers in Rita Guarino and Patrizia Panico. The USA-Italy match will kick off at 7 p.m. ET as part of a doubleheader featuring the A-League's Long Island Rough Riders vs. the Montreal Impact (9:15 p.m. ET).
U.S. Women's National Team Roster